Latest Dodgers roster panic ended up being an embarrassing nothingburger

Esteury Ruiz's presence at Dodger Stadium on Wednesday created an immediate stir, and caused some mild but not unreasonable panic about Tommy Edman and Hyeseong Kim's health, given their exclusions from the day's lineup.

Dave Roberts provided some conflicting back-to-back updates. First, he said that Edman tweaked his ankle and Ruiz was with the team on taxi, and then he basically said "never mind" and told reporters that Edman would be back in the lineup on Tuesday. Kim had fouled a ball off of his leg on Tuesday night but turned out to be fine.

Fabian Ardaya of the Athletic caused a similar mild panic on Thursday, when he noted that James Outman had a locker in the Dodgers' clubhouse. Was Roberts wrong (again)? Were Edman, Kim, or even Andy Pages or Teoscar Hernández, really injured?

All of them turned out to be entirely fine. Both Outman and Ruiz were with the team on taxi in case of an emergency roster move for Edman or Kim, but because the latter pair has been cleared, the former will go back to Oklahoma City without seeing playing time.

James Outman, Esteury Ruiz's presences in Dodgers clubhouse turned out to be a total red herring

Dodgers fans are sort of primed to expect the worst when it comes to injuries this season, but they've been far more frequent for pitchers than position players. Ardaya was only reporting what he saw and fans drew conclusions — and the Dodgers would take Edman or Kim over Outman or Ruiz any day of the week — but it was definitely a little exasperating for the Outman "news" to turn out to be a total dead end.

Edman is indeed back in Thursday's lineup, playing second base. Kim is not (Miguel Rojas is getting a start over him again), but he'll presumably be available to come off the bench if necessary.

Hopefully, the Dodgers will be able to avoid as many of these crossed wires or false alarms as possible, but you really never know without breakable this team has proven to be.